Mekong with Sue Perkins

Mandarin Film traveled with one of the BBC’s brightest TV personalities- Sue Perkins - for a 21-day shoot in the most beautiful and culturally diversified areas of Yunnan and Qinghai province for a four-part documentary series, Mekong with Sue Perkins. The series documented Sue’s epic journey of 3000 miles through Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and China, which finally ends close to the source of the Mekong in remote Qinghai province. Mandarin Film is so proud to be the local production company in China - we were approached at an early stage and were involved from the research stage, identifying the most amazing characters and locations, extensive recceing, fixing on location, and helping with logistics, translation and subtitling.

With the privilege to get close to remote traditional cultures largely unknown to the outside world and breathtaking landscapes in Yunnan and Qinghai, we are faced incredible challenges from filming at high altitudes (The highest mountain pass in Meili mountain, Yunnan is a rarefied 4,300 meters) and bitterly cold temperatures, traveling through inhospitable terrain on the Tibetan Plateau with no mobile phone signals and multiple language barriers with local minority people, etc.

To make sure the shoot went smoothly, Mandarin Film team worked closely with British production company Indus Film Productions on every detail, from location scouting, selection of characters to on-set translators, accommodation in remote areas. With 2 months of careful preparation in location/character research, logistics, permits and so on, we removed all the obstacles in front of us and finally saw Sue laughing and dancing with Aini minority women, talking part in the Dai minority’s water splashing festivities, visiting a yak herding family on Tibetan Plateau, and joining a group of nuns on a pilgrimage…

After the shoot, the program director Vicky Hinners wrote to us, “Your tireless patience with us was hugely appreciated and everyone really enjoyed spending time with Mandarin Film during filming. The films are looking gorgeous!”

Intended for BBC 2 and BBC Worldwide, Filming has now wrapped on this new mini-series and it will be screened on the BBC in October 2014.